To the most fairweather of British music fans, the RAH is, and always will be, synonymous with the last night of the Proms, and all that goes with it. But besides its astonishing acoustics and an aesthetic and atmosphere which rivals the Vatican, it has an effortless elegance which makes the venue itself feel like part of the performance.
The Beatles saw headlining the Hall as a mark of pop’s domination of mainstream culture. Sinatra saw it as the classy-most rinky-dink venue he could ever brag about playing. It’s also where one of the greatest live albums of all time was recorded, when Spirtualized performed a senses-shattering run-through of their ambitious ‘Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space’ album, finished with a laser-assisted reading of ‘Oh Happy Day’ given mesmeric potency by the London Community Gospel Choir.